VAT refunds will be returned to tourists in the form of cash in baht, encouraging them to continue shopping in Thailand with ease and convenience.

Apart from helping tourists, the campaign has been initiated to promote growth and balanced income distribution to small businesses.

As one of the founding parties of VAT Refund Centre (Thailand) Co Ltd, Siam Piwat said it was proud to be an official partner and representative to assist tourists with VAT refund processes in five locations across central Bangkok: Siam Paragon, CentralWorld, Central Chidlom, Robinson Sukhumvit and The Emporium.

Charnchai Cherdchoowongtha-nakorn, senior executive vice president of Siam Piwat’s retail business development division, said: “Siam Paragon is delighted to fully support the government’s policies and work with the Revenue Department. ‘Downtown VAT Refund for Tourists’ is set up to be a key area on G Floor, which tourists can find conveniently, as it is located by one of our entrances connected to the BTS Skytrain and taxi stops.

“Additionally, adept, knowledgeable and service-minded staff have been assigned to accommodate tourists with paperwork and essential procedures in order to fully and successfully comply with policies from the Revenue Department.

“Not only will shopping tourists of Siam Paragon, Siam Centre and Siam Discovery find it convenient to proceed with VAT refund at Siam Paragon, all tourists who have purchased goods, in accordance with all policies by the Revenue Department, are welcomed to complete all necessary procedures at our department stores.

“The convenience of VAT refund at Siam Paragon is extremely helpful for those who have purchased in the popular shopping destination One Siam, as hundreds of SME businesses, small retailers and corporations are located in the area, covering a vast space of 2 million square metres, with over 20 hotels to accommodate international tourists in more than 3,000 rooms available – with extra support from Bangkok’s BTS Skytrain system, connecting Ratchathevi and National Stadium to Siam station,” Charnchai explained.

“According to statistics, out of 400,000-500,000 shopping tourists per day at One Siam, an average of 938 VAT Refund Forms (PP10) have been filled each day from shops and retail spaces in Siam Paragon, totalling to a signification amount of 342,494 applicants,” the executive added.

The initiative of establishing VAT refund counters directly impacts the tourism industry on multiple levels, according to the Revenue Department:

1. The retained money which tourists have spent after receiving VAT refunds helps small retailers and businesses, which, in turn, strengthens Thailand’s economy;

2. The growth in sales volume and sales value is proportional to the rate of economic growth and revenue from tourist spending;

3. A significant decline in VAT refunds at Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang airports reflects a positive sign of service improvement; and

4.The VAT refund for tourists promotes better opportunities for local retail shops to generate more sales.

Chiranun Poopat, president of Central FamilyMart, said: “Today, the e-commerce market has grown continuously for more than 20 per cent annually, and individual consumers have also had a greater demand for express delivery over the past three to five years.”

“We have introduced Kerry Express, an express delivery service, available 24 hours a day at our FamilyMart stores in Bangkok and surrounding locations. The door-to-door express delivery will be provided to our individual customers so that they will be able to send their parcels to any locations throughout the Kingdom with fast and high-standard delivery process.

“With the strong capability of Kerry Express, a leading operator of logistics services, we believe in an ability to satisfy customers in using our express delivery service at every dimension, including fast and convenient in accessing express delivery service at our FamilyMart stores,” she said.

Chiranun added that for Christmas and New Year celebrations, FamilyMart would like to participate in these special times of happiness by offering a limited-edition parcel delivery box to its customers, free of charge.

Customers will be able to get the free box at FamilyMart stores for any purchase worth Bt79 or above via its express delivery service.

The convenience-store chain will also increase the choice for shoppers in selecting their New Year gifts with Khun Mae Ju, the well-known local food products from Phuket.

Customers can also get a limited-edition parcel delivery box free of charge when buying Khun Mae Ju products and using Kerry Express parcel delivery service at FamilyMart.

They will be able to select from many payment methods for the service, including points redemption from The 1 card, Rabbit card and Alipay.

The “Drink Nescafe before Driving” campaign will see the company hand out their ready-do-drink Nescafe Espresso Roast to over 100,000 drivers before they begin the journey home during December 29 to 31.

They will target five Highway Police Public Service Centres – Wang Manao, Wang Noi, Tubkwang and Prasatthat – which cover outbound routes from Bangkok to four regions nationwide, and Seeda, which covers outbound routes from Bangkok to all other regions.

Gen Zers are tech-savvy individuals with a deep and universal understanding of technology. They see technology not only as a tool of enabling human progress, but also as a means for levelling the information empowerment playing field.

Anothai Wettayakorn, vice president of Dell EMC Indochina, said that around 20 per cent of corporate workforce worldwide will be Gen Zers by 2023, according to studies.

Corporates need to prepare for workforce transformation in order to create the right environment and culture for this generation of workers or they will lose competitiveness.

He suggested five ways for corporate workforce transformation: to create the digital-first culture; to create a cross function complementary skill set; launch mentorship programme; to create human-machine partnership; and to integrate the workforce.

“ Companies need to create a digital-first culture, empowered by technology and strategy. It needs to integrate professional and digital savvy employees for cross function as well as to work well with machines and technologies,” said Anothai. He said that 2019 is the first year that Gen Zers will enter the workforce globally, including Thailand.

Dell will play the role of a technology consultant on workforce and digital transformation as well as on IT and security changes.

“Corporates need to invest in the right technologies to create a digital-first culture. They need to have new devices, mobile applications, new business model by adopting technologies such as artificial intelligence and mobile technology, new technology in business process such as virtual reality and augmented technologies in customer engagement,” said Anothai.

Anothai said Dell studied digital and workforce transformation in order to continue its leadership in the field and to encourage its customers to prepare for the challenge by investing in technology to bridge the gap as well as to accelerate their competitive advantages.

Apart from helping customers, Dell has also signed a memorandum of understanding with the Digital Economy Promotion Agency (Depa) and the Electronic Transactions Development Agency, for the advisory role on technology know-how, technology framework, and technology experiences related to smart city, digital transformation, and cyber security.

It is a non-commercial term and Thailand is the second country where Dell has signed an MoU with government organisations, following Vietnam. Philippines and Sri Lanka are the next two countries that Dell will be advising .

Speaking to a group of Asean journalists invited to visit its brilliant factory in Vietnam’s Hai Phong last week, Wouter Van Wersch of GE Asia Pacific said the firm’s regional expansion would mainly focus on “optimising” the 23 existing factories in the region rather than establishing new plants.

The regional market is very important to the multinational GE and they are watching it closely, he said. The company is present across all countries in the region and has a steady gaze on optimising its supply chain.

“With constant efforts to see how we can do more and better in the region, this [optimisation] is something that GE is looking at, from the global supply chain perspective.”

The factory in Hai Phong serves as a good example of the firm’s innovations, said the chief executive, pointing to its “brilliant factory” concepts that showcase advanced manufacturing technologies and digital efficiency. As one of GE’s five brilliant factories in the world, the site now exceeds 1,000 employees, half of the firm’s total headcount in Vietnam. To date, the factory has produced more than 6,000 units of generator systems and reached more than US$1 billion (Bt32 billion) in annual exports.

At a “brilliant factory” GE uses the latest technologies to consistently optimise it operations in real time. All staff are trained to collect and analyse data using advanced software and analytics, with better sensors and control systems helping in the collection and analysis process. The approach gives staff a deeper understanding of the factory’s operations, allowing them to easily respond in real time when something is not right.

Van Wersch takes pride in the success story of GE Hai Phong. The factory mainly produces renewable energy machinery and components to export wind-turbine generators and electrical control systems around the world. The facility has plans to expand its workforce to above 1,500 employees in response to the growing demand for renewable energy.

“The market requires it, so we could grow further,” said Van Wersch. “It is always a question of supply and demand.”

The firm has two other brilliant factories in Asia – in Japan and Singapore. The former mainly focuses on healthcare, while the latter prioritises aviation.

All GE factories will be further developed in line with the brilliant factory concept in the future, he said.

“On the brilliant factories front, it is definitely a push we have. We will ultimately make all our factories brilliant. This requires some investment, so we will do it gradually over time. Definitely, all the factories we have will ultimately be brilliant,” he said.

He pledged to be more responsive to the market and do better in terms of efficiency and performance. In this respect, the assessment for optimisation will be undertaken business by business, product by product.

The team fully gets tangible benefits from its use of 3D printing, he said. “We have a dedicated team in every business, and are looking at how we can do more using 3D printing. People are used to working in certain ways, and making changes is always something that we have to do. Honestly, I do not see any issue inside GE on how to leverage this technology in Asia and other parts of the world,” he said.

Van Wersch sees a very promising future in the energy sector in Asean, where around 65 million people still lack access to electricity. He sees renewable energy as a good solution for the long term but there is still a huge demand for fossil fuels and gas turbines, and even coal in some Asian countries including Vietnam and Indonesia.

“We have a very positive outlook ahead. A lot of power plants need to be upgraded to be able to generate more electricity and less emissions. That is going to be a driving force in the electricity market in Asean over the next few years,” he said.

“It is important to bring the best and most efficient technology with reliable suppliers – and GE always does it. We have been part of the region’s development for more than 100 years, and are continuing to be a key player in the world.”

Olivier Fontan, vice president for global supply chain at GE Renewable Energy, considers sourcing an advantage of doing business in Vietnam.

“Sourcing is a big part of our footprint. We will continue to diversify our supply footprint, and this part of the world is really a good place to source for the region and globally,” he said.

According to Fontan, the availability of skilled resources, logistics, and supply in the ecosystem are as important as political stability, incentives and labour advantages. He saw training employees and structuring conceptual designs as the major challenges that faced the transformation of the plant in Hai Phong, and those challenges were successfully addressed.

Trang Vu, the factory general manager, stressed the importance of four main pillars – lean manufacturing, digital maturity, advanced manufacturing and innovative technology.

Productivity will be boosted up to 20 per cent by optimising its manufacturing processes at the factory, she said.

“We have very strong targets in terms of product and service quality, implementing advanced manufacturing technologies and a sustainable improvement culture. We create jobs for locals – only one of our 1,000+ employees is an expatriate,” she said.

Although many consumers in the “Marketing 5.0” era lead an always-connected lifestyle, offline channels are still necessary, especially for |the auto buying journey, Pairote Cheunkrut, head of Krungsri Auto Group, told a press conference last week.

He shared some digital insights that says will help brands win the heart of car buyers and shape the auto finance industry in the 5.0 era.

Consumers may use online platforms to search for vehicle or loan information, reading reviews and comparing prices, Pairote began. But those consumers also visit dealerships for test drives and talk to financial advisors before submitting documents, he continued.

Thus, auto finance services must be available both online and offline, and all customer data must be synchronised across all channels, Pairote said.

“This will allow lenders to deliver a truly seamless customer experience.”

He said consumers in the age of Marketing 5.0 are more empowered than ever because they can access a plethora of information from anywhere at any time. And sometimes make purchase decisions even before seeing the physical products.

Thus, it is crucial that auto finance services are present in the online world, while lenders must be able to offer customers relevant advice that will empower them to make the right choices, he added.

To win over the hearts of consumers, auto finance providers need to foster meaningful relationships with the target audiences even before they consider buying a car. They must strengthen brand recognition to ensure it enjoys a top-of-mind position, he said.

He said traditional segmentation criteria can no longer tap into customers’ true identities because consumers often have more than one ambition in life.

Auto finance brands face two key questions they need to answer – where to look for data that will enable them to truly get to know their customers, and how to use the information to develop products or services that can respond to today’s multidimensional lifestyles, he added.

“We believe the auto-loan market will grow if we respond well to the [digital] insights. We have to get to know well our customers’ needs and lifestyles, so that we can design or develop a new business model to effectively meet those needs and lifestyles” Pairote stressed.

“As a market shaper, we will focus on agility and a digital approach, following the digital insights as our road map to win customers’ hearts,” he added.

The company set this year’s new-loan growth target at Bt198.6 billion or a 20 per cent gain year on year.

Of that sum, the total lending volume via online channels this year will be at least Bt1.8 billion, growing from Bt1.31 billion last year, according to Pairote.

The company also plans to introduce a variety of new digital products throughout next year to reinforce its leadership in digital marketing in the automotive finance market.

Last month it launched “Krungsri Auto PromptStart”, the first digital auto lending platform in Thailand to allow customers to check their credit appraisals via a mobile website.

The innovation has been very well-received, with over 304,000 visitors and Bt483.39 million in credit appraisals performed in the first month after its launch,” said Pairote.

According to him, the auto loan market in Thailand this year will grow beyond predictions to a total market value of Bt624 billion, gaining 12 per cent from last year.

The growth was mainly driven by outstanding new-car sales, which reached 1.02 million units for a year-on-year growth of 17 per cent.

It was the first time over the past five years that car sales topped |one million units, he added.

However, Pairote estimated that auto sales volume growth for next year would be in the single digits, in the range of 4-5 per cent, although the second eco-car phase will be launched in mid-2019 and after the rule expires ,prohibiting first-car buyers under the first-car tax rebate project from selling their vehicles for the first five years.

Currently, the company has 1.5 million active customers.

Like other industries, the auto loans sector has faced technological disruption that brought about significant changes in consumer behaviour and new business models. Brands across the industry were forced to transform the way they operate to increase their competitiveness.

At Krungsri Auto, they use data analytics and scientists to segment customers and design new services to fit the customers in each segment. They store all data on the cloud, protecting the system from crashes and allowing indefinite storage.

Technology helps us screen and grade customers and more precisely analyse the potential for paying back their auto loan, reducing the rate for non-performing car loans (NPL) to no more than 2 per cent, Pairote said.

Krungsri Auto’s NPL is in line with the market average at 1.6 per cent, he said.